Questions from a Microbiology instructor.

[Soporific]

I'm a new Microbiology instructor, and I've noticed that almost all of my students are pursuing a career in nursing. I'd like to tailor my teaching to the needs of my students, but I don't know anything about nursing or what knowledge my students require for their careers. After searching the internet, the only information I found was this presentation from a Microbiology teacher with a nursing degree.

So I figured I'd ask here. In general, did you learn anything in Microbiology that was particularly helpful later in your career? Or was there anything you weren't taught that you wish you were? Is there anything your Microbiology teacher could have done to make the class more interesting to you as a nursing student?

Also, are there any books you could recommend that describe what the nursing career path is like?

[hiddencatRN, BSN, RN]

I loved microbiology. I liked the labs, liked what we were learning. Things I use constantly as a nurse is understanding how bacteria and viruses and fungi and antibiotics/antivirals/antifungals function, gram + vs gram -, how the body responds to invading pathogens, differences in things like bacteriostatic vs bacteriocidal, why antibiotic resistance is a big problem, clean vs sterile, etc. But I honestly wouldn't try to tailor it too much or they'll miss interesting things that will be helpful in less obvious ways.

[Perpetual Student]

Consider the content of that powerpoint, but as hiddencatRN said, don't modify the course too much based on the fact that they're nursing students. I loved Microbiology because I love science (something lacking in nursing overall, sadly). The only thing I would recommend is that when coming up with examples try to think of clinical applications, which likely will appeal to a lot of folks, not just nursing students. Also, having a challenging Microbiology course is important to weed out people who're stupid and/or undisciplined from becoming nurses.

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

I loved micro too. Our instructor worked full time at St. Jude's Children's hospital and taught us at night. She brought the neatest slides (which we had to id). I loved giving those fancy names a FACE, by looking at them (like G. Lambdia!). Nurses need to know specially the differences between gram neg and positive, but really as in how to manage. I would not make the course specific to a discipline for two reasons. 1) not all of your students will be nursing students. 2) nursing students need to see how the rest of the world interacts with nursing. Good Luck!! My micro was years ago but I remember it fondly.

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

I loved micro. I became a nurse because I am interested in the biological sciences. Heh. Anyway, fomites, how organisms can adapt/mutate - things like VRE and MRSA combining - and maybe an emphasis on how drugs target specific parts of a cell's defenses.

[NoviceRN10]

I didn't take anything from microbiology (pathogenic) besides the importance of infection control. The rest of it boggled my mind!

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

you might be interested in a nifty book called from novice to expert by patricia benner, as it talks a lot about nursing and, well, how newbies achieve their potential. it could give you some good ideas about the milieu and nursing thought patterns. however, i strongly agree that you don't want to be watering down micro for nursing students. imho, they need to have a rigorous course so they really understand the concepts, tests, and such, as noted by the posters above.

in micro i learned that doorknobs, even the ones in the labs and bathrooms, don't culture out much of anything at all. and i learned that if you want to really knock the socks off your geeky ta in that lab where you scrape buccal cells off with a tongue blade, get one of your male classmates to put some fresh semen on the tongue blade and then when you put it on the slide, call the ta over to look at the fresh slide that you "just scraped out of my mouth."

seriously, i loved micro and can still tell you the difference between gm+ and gm- -- and i capitalize them, too, properly.

hope that little story doesn't earn me a tos...i've been so good lately!

[netglow, ASN, RN]

I really enjoyed going over our responses to bacterial invasion. The historical impact of understanding what used to kill masses, and how we've fought back over the centuries to gain some control. Also the stuff that we watch for globally to pop up somewhere again. What we worry about today, no new abx to speak of, and resistance and the reality of this if we stop being able to control with what we've got. Students today are so far removed from the knowledge of all this if they have not had some college level very ancient history, where, you learn how it was to live and die long ago. I had some serious courses in this, and wow is that an eye opener.

Science is great when as a student you realize how simple it all is. It's so simple that it can overwhelm you if you let it.